


The Fading Sounds of Cosmic Thunder

by Arkadin



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern - All Media Types, New Gods (Comics), Phantom Stranger (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-05 18:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5386352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkadin/pseuds/Arkadin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A veteran Lantern tells a new recruit the story of the Phantom Stranger--but not the one you're familiar with...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fading Sounds of Cosmic Thunder

So you're probably wondering: who was that guy with the hat you saw in that big battle earlier? The one who was talking to the Guardians and was right there in the front line with the Lanterns who were fighting off those Parademons? Well I'll tell you--that's the Phantom Stranger. You're surprised, right? Thought he was just a legend? If you're wondering who he really is--well, we all are. But I'll tell you a story.

You probably think he's some figure from one of your world's holy books. I hear stories like that everywhere I go. But this is a real old story--one they told when your planet was just a cloud of dust. Sit back and listen...

See, it all started in a world that wasn't so different from your own, except--get this--there weren't any superheroes. More than that--there weren't even any stories about superheroes. No one had ever thought of them before. Now on this world, there was a little boy. This was a time of war and chaos, when you couldn't walk around the block without running into a shooting. The boy was tired and scared and he'd lost so many friends and family. He didn't know if he'd live another year. So he used to sit alone in his room, and read books, and dream--about other worlds, maybe better ones.

And then one night, he had a dream where he felt himself floating above his own body. He rose up, through his apartment ceiling, up above the city, watching the explosions flower into flame below, then up above his whole world, to the point where his town wasn't even a dot anymore, then up into the stars... and then past them. Out to the very edge of the universe. Past the shattered wrecks of the giants who'd tried to reach the Source, the heart of creation, and past the Source Wall itself. And he did what all the conquerors and wise men had failed to do...

He entered the Source.

And what he saw--no one could describe that. But he saw the Hand of Fire which brings messages from the Source, moving toward him, and it touched him. And it wasn't painful, but it was more than he could handle. He screamed the loudest scream of his life. And then he woke up...

And he had an idea.

He wouldn't get to put that idea into practice for a long-ass time. He was just a kid. But he trained himself, watching the battles that were going on everywhere, until the day he was ready. And he made a costume for himself--pretty simple. A suit and a domino mask, a cloak for extra drama, and the finishing touch, a fancy medallion that used to belong to his grandma. Now he wasn't just going to be a scared civilian anymore. He was someone who was going to take a stand against anyone, on any side, who would harm innocents. A man of mystery. And he didn't use weapons--he didn't want to be just another man with a gun. If you had a gun, you didn't have to be brave or clever. And he was. He called himself--you guessed it--the Phantom Stranger.

This guy was the first superhero on his world, but more than that--he was the first superhero anywhere. See, this was way back in the old days of the universe--back before the Guardians, even. Now, this guy was just a man in a cape and a mask. He didn't have any powers or fancy gadgets. But he was something new in the world. There was a fire in his heart, a fire he'd brought down from the Source. And it spread to other people too. And it changed them. Soon, there were people with powers--people who could lift a building, who could run faster than the wind. And they got to be famous--people started listening to them. They banded together, across the world, forming a new kind of community.

The new heroes changed the world--they overcame war, and then hunger, and then death. With their new powers and inventions, they transformed their whole world into a world of gods. They spread out into the universe and brought their technology there--some of those machines are still out there, buried in ruins somewhere.

But the Phantom Stranger, he never felt comfortable around the gods. He never wanted to be famous. He just wanted to do what he'd always done--walk in the shadows and help the people who needed to be helped.

And so it went. Until--well, of course it all went wrong. The Old Gods were people just like us. They couldn't live without some kind of conflict. When they'd defeated their last enemies, they could only fight among themselves. So they did. The gods all gathered into different houses and factions, and all the resentments they'd been holding inside them for thousands of years burst out, and they started a war, bigger than any war the universe had ever known before. And through it all, the Phantom Stranger was there, just out of sight, doing everything he could to save whoever could be saved.

And then the last battle came. The day the Old Gods died. The brave, it's said, died with the cunning. The noble perished with the evil. And the world of the Old Gods split in two, with all the good and all the evil that filled that world forming two new worlds--New Genesis and Apokolips. But the Phantom Stranger was still there, still alive, standing in the ashes of the Old Gods. And then the Hand of Fire descended from the sky and touched him once again. This time, it did hurt. He'd been changed. His mask was now a shadow that hung over his face. And the Source had delivered its judgment--the other Old Gods had died, but he would never die.

So obviously, this is a punishment for his sin, right? For bringing the fire down from the Source that burned the cosmos? Well, the thing is, he's still doing what he always wanted to do, and being the person he always wanted to be. When he was young, he put on that costume to keep other people from suffering what he had. And now he was doing the same for whole worlds--making sure no world would die like his. And he's still out there. In the moments when the greatest of heroes themselves lose hope, you can see him. So was it a reward, or a punishment? Maybe even he doesn't know. Because the evil wouldn't exist without him, but neither would the good.

Now, is any of that true? I have no idea. Only the Phantom Stranger knows, and he keeps his lips sealed tighter than a Guardian's ass. But it's a hell of a story, isn't it?

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I thought it would be cool if the Phantom Stranger had an alternate possible origin that connected him to the more superhero-y parts of the DCU as opposed to the supernatural, pseudo-Biblical Vertigo-oriented approaches people usually take. A bit of this is quoted from New Gods #1 by Jack Kirby, as is the title.


End file.
